Pocono Football Roundup: Pleasant Valley hangs on to retain Bucket

Friday

Oct 5, 2012 at 3:21 PMOct 6, 2012 at 1:52 AM

Pleasant Valley has hung on to defeat Pocono Mountain East in a nail-biter to retain the Old Oaken Bucket on Friday night. Trailing 14-7 with under a minute left, the Cardinals scored a touchdown to cut the Bears' lead to one point, only to have the extra point blocked.

SWIFTWATER – The Old Oaken Bucket game came down to one play – and one big hand by junior Marquis Brown.

Brown blocked an extra point with 31 seconds left to play as Pleasant Valley held on for a 14-13 victory over rival Pocono Mountain East on Friday night, winning its fourth straight Bucket.

After watching Pocono East driving for what appeared to be the game-tying points, the 6-foot-5 defensive end Brown made the play of the night. Brown rushed between the long-snapper and the guard and blocked Vincent Clemson's extra point.

The home sideline fell to its knees, while another rejoiced.

A sloppy game mired with turnovers, fumbles and penalties turned out to be gem in the end. PV led 14-7 with under 2 minutes to play when Jordan Caffery's 21-yard field goal sailed to the left.

That gave the Cardinals life with the ball at their own 20. Senior quarterback Evan Fardella marched the Cards down the field converting a fourth-down pass to Steven Dienno and another long pass to RJ Sarajian to put the ball on PV's side of the field.

Fardella would hit Dienno for a 17-yard TD pass, cutting PV's lead to 1, 14-13.

That's when Brown stepped up and blocked the biggest kick of his life.

STROUDSBURG — Stroudsburg quarterback Mike Nikorak played his best game of the season, throwing for 184 yards and a touchdown as the Mounties defeated Wyoming Valley West 38-15 at Ross-Stulgaitis Stadium on Friday.

The Mounties (5-1) also ran for 305 yards on the night. The victory was the fifth straight for Stroudsburg, which saw its sophomore quarterback take a few more steps forward in his sixth career start.

He looked real good against the Spartans (3-3), hitting Donovan McDonald in stride on a 70-yard catch-and-run score in the first quarter and connecting with McDonald on several long plays in the second half to keep a drive alive.

Stroudsburg's ground game was good again. Altarique Mosley-Dew, the area's leading rusher, continued his impressive season with 149 yards on 17 carries. Gerald Douglas came on the second half and ran for 87 yards.

Mosley-Dew's first carry of the night went for 59 yards, which set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Davoon Willis for the game's first score. Mosley-Dew continued to churn out yards in the second quarter, picking up gains of 14, 5 and 6 that led to the first of two short touchdown runs by Philip Stokes and a 21-7 lead with 9:46 left in the first half.

Even McDonald got in on the fun, taking a reverse 54 yards around right end, throwing in a couple ridiculous moves to make defenders miss along the way, and Stroudsburg led 28-7 at the half.

A 21-yard strike from Nikorak to Justin Pierre eventually led to a 43-yard field goal by Jordon Ellison, and passes of 21 and 29 yards to McDonald on third-and-longs resulted in Stokes' 2-yard TD that made it 38-15 early in the fourth quarter.

Key play of the game: Niko Petrone had a 66-yard TD on the first play of the third quarter. He also scored the 2-point conversion on that play. That made the score 28-14 and that put the game out of reach for Dieruff. .. Mathew Riddick had a 42-yard INT return for a TD for Dieruff, for the first score of the game.

Key statistic: Niko Petrone, 21 rushes for 292 yards and 5 TD ... Mathew Riddick had two INT for Dieruff and he converted a first down on a fake punt. One of those interceptions he returned for the TD.

Notes: It was East Stroudsburg's homecoming game and East Stroudsburg scored 12 points in a span of eight seconds.

Amir Blair rushed for 107 yards and scored a touchdown to help Pocono Mountain West defeat William Allen, 17-6, in a Mountain Valley Conference football game Friday night.

West quarterback Jeff Krisiak, who was 16-for-22 for 153 yards, threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mark McMaster in the second quarter, putting the Panthers (2-4, 1-4 MVC) up 14-0. Allen (0-6, 0-4) scored before half on a Jaleel Ennis 2-yard run.

The only scoring in the second half was a 32-yard filed hockey by Mike Gaudette for PM West.

Check back at PoconoRecord.com for more on tonight's games, including photo galleries. You can also replay our Live Scoreboard from Week 6 by clicking on the box below: